At first, stepping closer, all Obito really noticed was that Itachi looked older. Which made sense. It had been a while. Too long, he thought. He hadn't really meant to let so much time slip by before he came back to Leaf.
He stepped a bit closer. Still utterly quiet as he moved, tattery, a young man with one bright, keen eye and a sly smile. "Hey, Itachi! Otouto. Or I guess it's hokage-sama now, isn't it?"
"You haven't been back in.... since before the purge happened." And that was over four years before. "Yes, Hokage. You don't have to call me that though."
A single nod. He had heard that it happened, of course. And he thought of Fugaku. "I know. I should have..." His gaze slipped sideways a bit, and he didn't quite finish. Because of course he should have. "Tsunade sent me a message," he said instead, cheerfully, to explain his presence now.
"Nothing much. She mentioned you. Said they need a guard around that can actually keep track of you. Which I guess they do. What are you doing out here, anyway?"
"If you don't want me, I'll go, hokage-sama." He shrugged. And it wasn't clear whether that was true, and at a word he might vanish and be gone just as completely as he had been for years, or if he was just saying it, and would stay even if Itachi asked him to leave.
"Since when is that a factor?" His voice was very quiet when he said -that-, and he leaned forward, planting his hands on the stone between his knees. He would have pulled a knee up instead, but he'd found that particular motion wasn't entirely comfortable anymore.
That got a long silence. Obito had always had a hot temper, and he his anger flared up a bit now. Well. It wasn't like the kid didn't have the right. And he didn't have any honest way to defend his absence, so. He turned and walked away, to the edge of the monument and along it for a while, looking out at the village. His village. At length he turned and came back, standing beside Itachi.
"You visited me all of twice since it was revealed you really hadn't died." His voice was soft, and he didn't look up. "And neither time did you really stop to talk to me. Forgive me that it seemed that as your little tag-along cousin I might have been pushed out of your thoughts."
"It's not like that." Obito kept looking at the village, frowning. Bristling, just a bit. "You don't know what you mean to..." No, that sounded stupid. He stopped himself from finishing it. "Anyway, you could have called me back."
For a moment Obito saw not a young man, but the little child that he loved and protected many years ago. And the thing was--this was that child. His cousin, his family. He shouldn't have let everything else keep him away, the way it had. "I'm sorry," he said, and meant it. "I'll come if you call me, okay? I'll always come if you call me."
He wanted to blame the hormones of the pregnancy, but he had to look away as he felt his eyes start to tear up, one hand coming up to rub at his eye. "I missed you."
Obito hesitated, wondering if maybe he should pretend not to notice. But he was tender-hearted, and he was naturally demonstrative. And he had done enough backing off, he figured. So he sat down lithely, closely, and touched and tugged, and offered to draw him forward and embrace him.
he was stiff for a moment, then leaned into him, feeling rather childish. "I thought you were dead for the longest time, then you showed up and barely said anything and then you were -gone- again..."
Obito held onto him tight for a moment before leaning back, keeping just one arm over his cousin's shoulders. "...While I was gone, all I ever thought about was coming back here," he said. This was going to be difficult to explain. But he owed him the explanation, didn't he? "But then with Rin dead and... I'm not..." He thought of killing the Mist nin, and coming out of the haze of rage and finding the whole world bloody and dark. He thought of the cave. He thought of Madara. And honestly he has not stopped thinking about Madara, in all this time. "...I'm not fit for village life, the way I used to be."
That got a sideways sort of smile. Obito had always been a very caring older cousin--but also the kind that couldn't let a really, really good opportunity for teasing slip by. Though the switched gender was all he had noticed, so far.
"Is this part of some kind of... hokage thing I don't know about?" And a dubious, suspicious glance down at the monument below them, and the previous hokages immortalized there.
"Some accident." He gave a soft, growly little laugh. He knew well enough that those gender-switching jutsu were only for shenanigans, of one kind or another. "Did you get stuck, or something?"
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He stepped a bit closer. Still utterly quiet as he moved, tattery, a young man with one bright, keen eye and a sly smile. "Hey, Itachi! Otouto. Or I guess it's hokage-sama now, isn't it?"
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"If you had needed me, I would have come back."
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His tone was rather soft, and there was an open vulnerability to his expression that the man had learned not to share in the years they'd been apart.
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"Is this part of some kind of... hokage thing I don't know about?" And a dubious, suspicious glance down at the monument below them, and the previous hokages immortalized there.
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We have lost Tenten for the evening. She sleeps.
Daww, oh well... I shall sleep soon as well...
I as well now that the account I've worked on all day has posted.
ohh, girl sasuke? <3
Indeed! I spent all day finding art for icons :D
She's awesome *_*
Yeah? I'm happy you like her!
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And now I'm off--goodnight!
Good night!
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Must head off early--night!
Sleep well!
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